Hi all,
I thought I'd share my experience installing the Scarebird (US Car Tool) front disc brake conversion on my '68 Super Bee. I did this over the past weekend and I've included pictures below.
To start - my experience was really good. I did run into a few things that I will mention here and I had a conversation with John Pasemann who owns US Car Tool/Scarebird to let him know.
I did this conversion by myself, with the exception of bleeding the brakes where I had my wife help me. Otherwise...just me.
I met these guys at the Chrysler Carlisle show a few weeks ago and the thing I really liked was that with the exception of their engineered caliper brackets, everything else was off the shelf. I was able to use my existing drum brake spindles and everything clears my 14" road wheels!!! I was concerned that the 11.75" rotors would cause a clearance problem (they didn't). I also opted to buy their "monster calipers" which are the same as the ones on the parts list, but they are modified to have a 2.75" piston instead of the smaller stock piston. All in, I think I'm just over $600.
Here's the parts list...as you can see, everything is available at your local parts store:
The instructions are not complicated, but there were a few areas where they were a bit unclear. I mentioned these to John and he's going to have them updated to be more clear. Those areas are:
1) The 4 holes in the caliper brackets to mount the bracket to the spindle were just a bit too small. I enlarged them by a couple of thousandths to get my existing bolts to fit. No compromise of the bracket's integrity.
2) There are bearing spacers that slide onto the spindle and the inner bearing rides on. The picture was not very clear as to their orientation.
3) Regarding the bearing spacers, they state that if they are "too loose" on the spindle to add some Loctite. But what does "too loose" mean in this context? Mine fit snugly, so I didn't worry about it.
4) When talking about the "residual pressure valve", they reference the "upper left picture", but it is actually the picture on the right on the previous page.
5) The dust caps are a bit looser than I think they should be, but they are on so far.
With another set of hands, I probably could have gotten this completed in a day. The car stops tremendously and with no pulling to either side. What a joy to drive!!! All in all, I highly recommend looking at the Scarebird option if you want disc brakes on the front of your B body.
My 11"x3" drum assemblies with pads are available for sale if anyone is looking for them.
I thought I'd share my experience installing the Scarebird (US Car Tool) front disc brake conversion on my '68 Super Bee. I did this over the past weekend and I've included pictures below.
To start - my experience was really good. I did run into a few things that I will mention here and I had a conversation with John Pasemann who owns US Car Tool/Scarebird to let him know.
I did this conversion by myself, with the exception of bleeding the brakes where I had my wife help me. Otherwise...just me.
I met these guys at the Chrysler Carlisle show a few weeks ago and the thing I really liked was that with the exception of their engineered caliper brackets, everything else was off the shelf. I was able to use my existing drum brake spindles and everything clears my 14" road wheels!!! I was concerned that the 11.75" rotors would cause a clearance problem (they didn't). I also opted to buy their "monster calipers" which are the same as the ones on the parts list, but they are modified to have a 2.75" piston instead of the smaller stock piston. All in, I think I'm just over $600.
Here's the parts list...as you can see, everything is available at your local parts store:
The instructions are not complicated, but there were a few areas where they were a bit unclear. I mentioned these to John and he's going to have them updated to be more clear. Those areas are:
1) The 4 holes in the caliper brackets to mount the bracket to the spindle were just a bit too small. I enlarged them by a couple of thousandths to get my existing bolts to fit. No compromise of the bracket's integrity.
2) There are bearing spacers that slide onto the spindle and the inner bearing rides on. The picture was not very clear as to their orientation.
3) Regarding the bearing spacers, they state that if they are "too loose" on the spindle to add some Loctite. But what does "too loose" mean in this context? Mine fit snugly, so I didn't worry about it.
4) When talking about the "residual pressure valve", they reference the "upper left picture", but it is actually the picture on the right on the previous page.
5) The dust caps are a bit looser than I think they should be, but they are on so far.
With another set of hands, I probably could have gotten this completed in a day. The car stops tremendously and with no pulling to either side. What a joy to drive!!! All in all, I highly recommend looking at the Scarebird option if you want disc brakes on the front of your B body.
My 11"x3" drum assemblies with pads are available for sale if anyone is looking for them.
